The college class of 2011 emerges into a world of alarmingly few very attractive entry-level jobs. But not all majors are created equal, and new alumni will find that certain degrees command much higher paychecks than others, even now. Pick your college major right, and you're off to a head start.

The National Association of College and Employers puts out a quarterly report of starting salary offers to new college graduates in 70 disciplines at the bachelor's degree level. The survey gathers data from college and university career centers nationwide.

The summer 2011 survey found that the average starting salary for this year's graduates rose 4.8% to $51,018, up from $48,661 a year ago. Among the disciplines that saw their average offer change, more than 82% saw an increase.

Four of the five highest-earning majors are in engineering. As a group, the engineering disciplines saw a 2.5% increase in their overall average salary offer, which now amounts to $60,465. Almost all of the reported engineering disciplines reported improvement, with petroleum engineering and computer engineering grads posting the greatest increases.

Petroleum engineering takes the top spot, with an average starting salary of $80,849, up 8.1% from last year's $74,799. The average offer to computer engineering graduates rose 7.6% to $64,499.

The only non-engineering major in the top five: computer science. These graduates saw their average salary offer increase 3.7% to $63,402, up from $61,112 last year. Computer science disciplines as a group saw their average offer rise 4.3% to $62,328.